Monthly Archives: December 2010

So we had a guest for the night last night. Had some drinks and good talks..then the topic of conversation got around to what we needed those 2 couches for that were out near the shed…I told him that we needed to demonstrate what the couches were for:

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With all the snow in the last 2 days there is no risk of fires starting from the couch fire. Not really the most environmentally friendly thing I have done all year but it really is amazing how a burning couch can light up the night! I don’t recommend standing anywhere near the couch while it burns..very hot and very smoky.

No, this WonderWasher is not flying an invisible plane or wearing bullet reflecting armlets…it is a washing machine..of tiny proportions. A* and I wanted a temporary/small scale solution to laundry woes and emergency washes. We do not have a washer and dryer and over the holidays we were very busy..so when we finally got a chance to go to do laundry on the 27th we did 9 loads. Personally I like the laundromat..it is efficient..you put 9 loads in..wait 25 minutes..put those 9 loads in the dryer and wait 35 minutes and voila..you are finished..folding aside it beats 20 trips up and down stairs to do all of this in my opinion but it is not really cost effective…those 9 loads cost around $30 when it was all said and done. So, last summer I bought the WonderWasher with the intent to do things like underwear and small items as we need them and air dry the articles once washed…as the product page states:

“When you put warm or hot water into the drum, fit the lid in place and seal the machine,the air inside the drum will absorb the heat of the water and expand (i.e., just like a hot air balloon). When the air expands it creates pressure inside the drum. The pressure forces the detergent (which is diluted into the water) into & through the fabric (which is porous) about 100 times faster than you could by hand or machine.”

So, this week we are doing small things by hand to try to see what its like…one thing is that once the wash is done you need a way to get the excess water out of the clothes..we are doing it by hand now which is a pain. It is good in that it does not use much water and a load takes about 10 minutes to do..7 of those minutes are waiting for water to drain..and then around 5 minutes of wringing dry.

..I need to get my flooring properly covered. I bought a new ‘Portable Garage’ the other day…and I started setting it up. It said it would take 2-4 hours to complete..and after 4 hours I now am to step 3 of a 6 stap process..hell, it took me 45 minutes just to unpack it! Oh well. We ALWAYS have storage issues so I wanted something that I could have outside to keep things dry..mostly the flooring and in the Spring I will put my motorcycle in it..The motorcycle will die an early death if I don;t get it out of the rain.

..the chickens were not much help.

After we got to that stage I needed a break..my fingers were freezing. Later in the day as the snow continued to fly we took another trip to the stillwater to see the progress the beavers were making..looks like the water level went up another 1/2 foot or so…and I still have not seen one in the area..I wonder how many there are there. As I mentioned there is no damage this location can cause so hopefully nobody will trap them:

..so last night the old pak-lite got to a level that it was not really lighting anything up anymore..it WAS still lit but it was not doing much more that that..so for the porpoises of this eggsperiment I am going to say: DONE.

the final totals are in…1 pak-lite with one 9v battery was switched on and stayed on for a total of:

2,851,200 seconds or 47,520 minutes or 792 hours..which equals out to $0.0025 per hour.

…not too bad for $2 worth of batteries. I set up the new red light too..looks really great and lights up the front of my video camera. its only a trick but from anything further then 20ft it looks like a security camera that is on..so it will accomplish its task for now.

We have officially had the pak-lite lit up for over 1 month. It was rated for 600 hours on an everyday cheap 9v battery and now we are up to 756 hour of non-stop running. Neat stuff..you can get 9v batteries for next to nothing so this is going to be great. I also got my red light pak-lite in the mail yesterday so I am going to run this one too and see if there is much of a difference when using different LED’s..I got the red so I could have night vision but still see for when I do things like star-gaze or hunting snipes…and for security too. If someone is thinking of breaking into a place and they see a video security camera lit up with a red light I think that they will think that security is active..Its sort of like the movie ‘Clerks’..not the movie but an idea in that movie..If people think they are being watched they will usually follow established norms..I am hoping that the norm that they feel obligated to follow is the one where people don’t break into other peoples houses. If they decide to break established norms then I hope they break into my house ONLY to make my bed..that would be really odd and against so many norms it could blow my mind.

So we spent Saturday getting the place rearranged back like it was before..or at least all setup. We attached the baseboards for the floor and moved a waredrobe we bought a couple of weeks ago into the bedroom. Its a small space so there is only so much we can do but it looks more roomy now with the new arrangement. We did not want Jango to scratch up the floor so we moved th bed closer to the door and the wardrobe on the far wall. Looks nice and we were able to dismantle the old wardrobe that had been cramping the living room. Without the wardrobe the place looks much roomier. Its amazing what removing something will do even in a space this small.

With the remainder of the old wardrobe I placed the pieces over our bonfire pit in prep for snow..ever tried to have a bonfire in deep snow..it sucks. Unless you dig all the way to the ground you cannot get the fire going good..the snow melts and the fire continually drops..so with the pit covered I should be able to start a fire easily..and to make things even easier I covered the scrap wood with a tarp to make sure it stays dry..yes, fire is crappy in deep snow but so is trying to find wood under 3ft of snow..a couple of years ago we had a winter bonfire to burn all the excess trimmings from the trees we cut up for firewood..it burned great but we ran out…until the snow melted..turned out we were all standing on 2ft of wood that we could not see and didn’t even know it.

We are also in the process of setting up a 10×20 portable garage..with a small space such as ours we are always having issues with storage..and in the winter when we need to put stuff under roofs the storage crunch becomes even more acute..we run out of room..I only stored my motorcycle in the shed and put the scooter in a friends garage ( in a trade where I took all his junk away to burn ) so its not as bad a storage crunch as previous years..but we needed something for the wood if we want to do the flooring over the winter. We have the frame up now..’..setup time should be 2-3 hours with 2 people’ according to the instructions..well..we are 2-3 hours in now and only have the frame set up..hell..it took us 1/2 just to get all of the pieces identified!..then there is the whole ‘where do we put something this big that is level’ question..with the lay of my land finding a level enough shot could be the biggest issue!

..we lost our little dog Nova. I am actually a little choked up as I type this too after collecting the pictures. A dog is part of the family..and after 13 years I knew her better then I knew 1/2 of my friends..Its never easy saying goodbye but I take solace in the fact that she was sick and suffering. Jango is now #1 and thats the way he likes it..but he still will not play tug of war with other dogs due to fear of getting bit on the nose by Nova..so her legend lives on. All future dogs will suffer from being compared to Nova..she was a legend. Rest in peace Nova. We miss you.

Nova and the gang as a pup..

and

Nova is older..taken a couple of weeks before she left..we had a feeling the end was near..we tried to emulate our expressions from the first picture.